


Chill

by musiclvr1112



Series: Friends to Lovers AU [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, Mild Language, Somewhere around there, or 26, they're like 25
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-08 00:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7735024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musiclvr1112/pseuds/musiclvr1112
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since graduating high school, Chloe's life has been constant movement. So when she runs into her old classmate as he's just doing nothing, she begins to wonder what it must be like to sit still every now and then.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chill

Six meetings. Six. Damn. Meetings. In one day! Who does that!? Even worse, half of them were useless arguments over the terms of contracts that had been settled weeks ago. All day, she had had to deal with asshole after asshole trying to take advantage of the up and coming businesswoman. She might not have been so willing to take over the family business if she’d known how much of a fight it was going to be to earn her respect.

But what was she going to do? Her dad wouldn’t be around forever and if she wanted to keep living her life of luxury (which she did), she would have to take over the hotel when he was gone. And if that meant sitting through six stupid demeaning (and boring) meetings in one day, fine. At least she was good at it. As strange as it was, Chloe had actually really found her calling in business. It turned out that knowing how to bend people to your will was an incredible asset in a world of greedy businessmen and businesswomen constantly trying to take advantage of you.

She had even taught her father a few things about not letting people walk all over him.

The last meeting of her day had been a good—albeit rather extreme—example of those skills. Their meeting was supposed to be cordial—just a formal yet simple meeting over coffee to renew some contracts that the hotel had with his linens company. Chloe had long been trusted to handle these meetings alone, and while that shouldn’t have been a problem, it was turning out to bring out the worst in their various business partners.

The asshole that she met with had tried to squeeze more money out of them thinking it would be easy since he was talking to the heiress rather than the mayor—a mistake that many people had been making around her—and as she had sat through five long and boring meetings of the same crap earlier that day, Chloe _snapped_. Right in the middle of the coffee shop she had reduced a very successful businessman to a puddle of shame begging for mercy. She had even gotten him to upgrade their deal to his finest linens instead of the subpar products he had been selling them before.

Letting her temper loose like that was exhausting these days. Back in high school she had let her tantrums fly freely, but now she was an adult in an adult world and she was expected to act as such. She laughed as it occurred to her just how crazy she had been as a teenager. That wasn’t even that long ago, but she had really changed since then. Business may be a hassle, but it had definitely done her good.

As she walked out of the coffee shop at four in the afternoon, she realized she was actually done for the day. Nothing else had been scheduled for her that day, even though she usually worked until five. She was tired—after all she had sat through six meetings and one of them had gotten her supremely riled up—but she couldn’t help but think that she ought to use her extra hour.

Chloe walked across the grassy field separating her from her car as she debated what to do. She could take another look at the contract she needed to have ready by Friday, or she could—

Her train of thought was cut off as her heel stuck into the grass and pulled her down to meet it.

“Ow,” she muttered as she brushed the dirt off her face. Damn it. This was a brand new suit too. Oh well, at least it was the end of the day, and no one who knew her was here to see—

“Chloe?” Shit. She lifted her head to see…someone. He looked really familiar but she was having trouble figuring out why. Though she couldn’t imagine ever forgetting someone so hot.

The man that stared at her from a few feet away looked to be about her age. He was a little taller than her, lean but not without muscle—as his loose tank top displayed nicely—had bright red hair pulled back so it was half up, and probably the most gorgeous pair of bright blue eyes she had ever seen. Maybe even prettier than her own. He had his head cocked and an eyebrow raised, causing the sunlight to glint off the piercing he had on his brow as well as the two rings in his earlobe.

“Are you alright?” he asked after she sat there staring at him for a few minutes like an idiot. Wow. Add to that description a really sexy voice.

Chloe got up and started brushing off her suit to no avail. “Yeah! Totally fine, just tripped and fell. That’s… That’s all.” Chloe blinked as it dawned on her why he appeared so familiar. It was Nathanael, from high school. The artist.

Wow. Time had really done him favors. He still just sat there, looking up at her as she gave up on getting the newly formed grass stains out of her suit. He didn’t seem to have any care to help her, or even to stand up to greet her properly. She swallowed nervously. She was no longer used to dealing with people who didn’t want something from her.

“Um…Nathanael right? You were in my class weren’t you?” His expression was absolutely still except for the way he very subtly narrowed his eyes at her.

“Yeah, I was,” he answered smoothly. Well kudos to him for being so calm and collected. As she recalled he was always a nervous wreck back in high school. She looked around a little bit. There was no one else that appeared to be with him. He also didn’t seem to have anything with him—not even a sketchbook. That was weird. He always used to carry one around with him before.

“Do you still…um…do art stuff?” This time his eyes widened a little bit and his brows flicked upward. He seemed surprised that she knew he was an artist.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Then…where’s your sketchbook?”

“I didn’t bring it.”

“But…then…what are you doing?”

“Just cloud watching.” She blinked at him. Cloud watching. Really? People did that? No she was pretty sure people didn’t do that.

“Why…?” He glanced away for a moment before bringing his eyes back to hers with brows knit.

“Do I need a reason?”

What kind of question was that? Of course you need a reason! No one does anything for no reason! Although she supposed that wasn’t quite right either because he wasn’t doing anything. Cloud watching to her was the equivalent of doing absolutely nothing. Sitting and staring at the sky. Basically nothing. Why would he do that? It didn’t make sense. Chloe was always moving these days. Everything in her life was always moving. She went to a meeting, she had a quick break for lunch, she ran off to another meeting, she had to work on contracts, etc. The only time she ever seemed to stand still was to sleep and even then—

“Chloe? Are you okay?” Shit. She had definitely been staring at him while thinking. He was still just sitting there though. He seemed so…calm. He was so at ease, just sitting and doing…nothing.

Then four words slipped out of Chloe’s mouth that she hadn’t been expecting. “Can I join you?”

Everything else had brought very little change in expression to his face, but at that he looked genuinely taken aback. “Uh…yeah sure,” he replied, sounding more confused than anything. She wondered which of them was more confused right now. She couldn’t imagine him being more surprised at her actions than she was in the moment.

Chloe forced herself to move forward and took a seat in the grass next to him. He took one last look at her before lying back and looking up at the sky again. After a moment Chloe followed, her body rigid as she settled back against the grass. She was pleasantly surprised, however, at how comfortable the plush greenery was.

They just laid there in silence for a few moments. Chloe stole a sidelong glance at him. If she was having any sort of effect on him, she most definitely couldn’t tell. The guy was the definition of chill lying beside her as he stared up at the clouds.

Chloe attempted to look up at the clouds. She tried to see what he saw. But if she was being honest, they were just clouds.

“So…what do you do?” she asked after a few moments of silence. He shrugged.

“Nothing really,” he replied simply. She turned her head to look at him. Those gorgeous blue eyes kept their gaze upward.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” she said. His only reply was another small shrug of his shoulders. So she continued. “I don’t get it, why would you just sit here and do nothing?”

Nathanael seemed to consider her words with a deep breath before turning to look at her. Her breath caught in her throat as his eyes connected with hers.

“Why did you join me?”

She blinked at him. Why did she join him? She wasn’t entirely sure herself. Something about him had simply piqued her interest—whether it was how hot he had become since high school, how he didn’t seem to want to impress her at all, or maybe how utterly and completely chill he was. She was slowly beginning to realize that she needed more of that chill in her life. “I…” she began. “I guess I’m so used to constant movement…that I was curious what it was like to sit still.”

“And?”

A light breeze travelled across the field to come tickle some blades of grass against her skin. She watched as a few strands of his fiery hair brushed across his cheek. He stared at her as he waited for a response, his eyes intense yet…soft—gentle even. And calm. Very calm.

“And…it’s nice,” she whispered.

**Author's Note:**

> I may or may not continue this someday. I'm currently working on a full length fic for these two that I'm gonna be releasing soon though, so keep an eye out for that. :)
> 
> Want to receive updates on my writing? Follow me on tumblr @iwroteinapastlife :D
> 
> UPDATE: The full length Nath x Chloe fic is official. It's called Tearing through the Pages and the Ink and it can be found here:  
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/7757527/chapters/17689324


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